NOTES ON ACTING, an intermittent journal about acting on stage and film, as well as in life.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Oklahoma Shakes Day Twenty-eight

We ran our first dress rehearsal of Henry in the morning and struck the set of The Jungle Book--the childrens' show--in the evening. My throat was raw all day and I gargled my words during rehearsal, so today, I'm avoiding caffein, alcohol and unnecessary talking, though I also have three rehearsals today, G&Ds in the morning, a second dress rehearsal of Henry in the afternoon, and the last dress rehearsal for CHAA, in the evening.

In the Henry rehearsal today, I must be more decisive about a few, troublesome lines in Part II. Henry is dying, and he awakes with a start to realize he's alone in the room. He calls for his sons and asks why they left him alone. He learns that prince Harry has been there and taken the crown. He reacts to the news, then calls for Harry. I've resisted finding workable actions for this little stretch of text and it's obvious. I'm slipping around on icky, uninformed emotionalism. It's my most amateurish moment in the show, at present. I'm not sure why I find it so difficult, as the dramatic moment is clear, the action seemingly simple. Yet it makes me feel naked in a creepy way. I'm not protecting myself, however, by avoiding it. The hamming I'm doing, at present, just exposes me more. I think this moment is going to call for a full-blown sustitution, an 'as if' scenario that flies free of the given circumstances more than I've had to do elsewhere in the show--at least, this is something I can do for the next couple of rehearsals.

I have other issues with Henry at the moment, but they're product of two things: the stage of rehearsal we're in and my sore throat/low energy. I expect some movement with them, today.